Pre-Production
Our project required a lot of communication in order to make sure we were all clear on our concept and when we had to organise our various props, location, costume, as well as sharing footage with one another to embed on our blogs.
behind the scenes of production day
Brainstorming
Before grouping together, I used online technologies such as BBC News in order to encourage a flow of opening title sequence ideas (to pitch to the class). To do this I scrolled through different subsections of the website that interested me to read articles separate to the breaking news of COVID-19 updates. This was a really useful technique and the online technology made each article easier to access and from any point - allowing me to do it regardless of where I was and if I had a burst of creativity I could immediately find a story that I found inspiring. It was also a good online technology for me to use as it allowed me to create original ideas that are relevant and have can audience already interested (because news stories reach a mass audience and journalists must create interesting stories).
Communication
Regarding hardware, our phones and laptops were crucial when communicating with each other, to organise meetings and group deadlines but most importantly during the lockdown and my isolation. On these hardwares we utilised online technologies such as Teams and Snapchat to either video call or message eachother. This was an integral part to our pre-production stage as it was mostly done online because of the rules and regulations surrounding COVID-19. When in school, we used Snapchat to talk about specific props, to decide tasks for example; specific blog posts and emailing teachers. This meant that we also used online softwares such as Outlook to email our cast, to organise props, location and costume and to communicate deadlines with our teacher. Looking back, Teams was a good choice in online technology as it was reliable and saved our messages and call times whereas Snapchat messages delete themselves unless we have saved them as a group
Researching
Online technologies were a significant part of researching as platforms such as YouTube and Netflix provided examples for our sequence and allowed us to visually show each other what we meant if we couldn't describe something well enough. Specifically, they came in useful when watching other sports films for inspiration for our sequences and when researching specific ways to film sports. This was important for us to understand as it is different to filming a 'typical' sequence and we had to understand the challenges that cam along with it.
Organisation
To ensure that we remained organised and on track as a group, I used the Microsoft Online software to make notes quickly during group meetings with advisors to ensure I could write everything down fast enough and remain focused on the meeting. This also made it easier to share with the rest of the group as I only had to email it to all of them using Outlook, another online software. Not only that, but it meant I could easily edit the notes I had made if we had made decisions or wanted to change certain elements when we continued our meetings after our advisor/ teacher had left.
Test Shoot
Once we felt as though we had a solid idea, we did rough test shoot to transfer our written and theoretical ideas into a visual product. For this, we used our phones as our hardware equipment to film (both the visuals and sound on the camera app). This was because we hadn't yet learnt to use equipment and it was the most efficient way to make our way through as much of our shotlist as possibly in the hour we had. After filming, I used the iMovie software on my laptop (more hardware) to edit the shots together into a narrative sequence. I feel as though these were the best technologies we could have used that we have access to.
Equipment + Editing Workshops
The final thing we did prior to film was learn to use hardwares such as cameras and mics in order to have basic skills sufficient for production day. For this we learnt skills such as filming, focussing and changing the exposure and lighting settings. We did not have to learn how to change lenses as we used the built in lens on the Black Magic URSA camera. Additionally, we learnt how to use the sennheiser by plugging it in, attaching it to the gun and putting the wind sock over it. The final skill we learnt in our workshops was editing using the software Adobe Premiere Pro as it was the software provided to us in order to edit our sequences once we got to the post-production stage.
